Ball-in-hand out wide secures a third tour victory

IN HIS own words, Dave Dennis was ''buggered'' and doing a spot of ''seagulling'' on the right flank when he realised it was on.

Berrick Barnes lobbed a long pass out to replacement centre Mike Harris, who beat Welsh lock Lou Reed then repelled winger Liam Williams, and Dennis cranked up the legs for one final run.

''I just pulled back, I knew we were going to come back wide again,'' he said. ''We were trying to get them on the edges. [Sekope Kepu] made a good run earlier and it was working for us, so I knew the ball was coming back my way. I just worked hard on it and I think Mikey Harris had to come on and he put me into a bit of space. I was just happy [Kurtley Beale] popped up, because I don't think I had the legs to get there.''

Beale's match-winning try may have come after 79 minutes of unimpressive territory rugby but that it came at all, 15 tests and countless injuries into a tough season, said as much about the Wallabies as did their loss to France in the first Test of their spring tour. Backs against the wall they will fight to the final seconds, especially for a teammate like Nathan Sharpe.

''There's nothing to it, the boys were desperate for a win,'' Dennis said. ''When you're desperate like that and you want to do it for someone like Sharpie, who's such a quality bloke, you find something and it paid off.''

Wales coach Warren Gatland said his players were ''naive'' to not see the attack coming.

The Wallabies had identified space out wide and wanted to run the ball instead of engaging in more of the aerial ping pong that dominated all but the first and last 10 minutes of the match.

Dennis said Wales' commitment to kicking forced the Wallabies to play the ball in the final 10 minutes.

''I don't think we were in the mindset of playing to get a penalty and kick for a draw,'' he said. ''That last five minutes, although we ended up camped down our half, we felt if we got some ball and spread it around a bit there'd be some chances.

''As soon as I got that space I thought 'we're a chance here', whether I got tackled and we went again, whatever. But we finished it there and then.''

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